Judge asks for evidence in lawsuit against Mutrie's mother after Greenland shooting

Friday

Nov 9, 2012 at 3:15 AMNov 9, 2012 at 8:09 AM

By Jim Haddadinjhaddadin@fosters.com

BRENTWOOD — Four police officers shot during a drug raid in Greenland this year will need to prove that their assailant got his guns from his mother before they can proceed with a lawsuit against her.

The men were all wounded while taking part in an April 12 drug search. The operation took place at a home at 517 Post Road.

Investigators say 29-year-old Cullen Mutrie — a suspected drug dealer who lived at the home — opened fire on a team of police officers as they attempted to search the property. Four officers were shot in rapid succession; Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was then killed during an ensuing gun battle.

In July, the four wounded officers sued Mutrie's mother, Beverly Mutrie, claiming she “recklessly and wantonly” allowed her son to carry out a criminal enterprise at the home, leading to their injuries. The home is owned by a trust Beverly Mutrie controls, according to court records.

The plaintiffs claim Beverly Mutrie facilitated her son's criminal activities by allowing him to live in her house, drive her cars and receive her financial support.

Her attorney has asked Rockingham Superior Court Judge Kenneth McHugh to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming Beverly Mutrie didn't have a legal duty to report or prevent the alleged criminal conduct of her son.

In court filings, her attorney made the case that parents cannot be held liable for the crimes of their adult children. Allowing the lawsuit to go forward would create a new legal precedent in New Hampshire, he said.

In a ruling issued Oct. 19, McHugh largely affirmed that argument, indicating case law in New Hampshire does not support holding parents accountable for their children's crimes.

“Cullen Mutrie was 29 years old when he engaged in the firefight with police, and there is no evidence to suggest that the defendant was in a position to control his actions,” McHugh wrote.

When evaluating whether to dismiss the lawsuit, McHugh was tasked with deciding whether the allegations presented by the plaintiffs, viewed in the most favorable light, establish Beverly Mutrie had knowledge of her son's criminal activities.

McHugh ruled the plaintiffs met that burden, and that the allegations sufficiently establish Beverly Mutrie had knowledge of her son's criminality, and the potential for him to act violently, if the scenario outlined by the plaintiffs is true.

However, the plaintiffs failed to establish Beverly Mutrie's financial and material support for her son created a harmful situation for others, in McHugh's eyes.

“Providing him with a house, cars and financial assistance did not enable Cullen Mutrie to shoot the police, nor did it contribute to his decision to do so,” he wrote.

McHugh left open the possibility that Beverly Mutrie created a potential risk to others by allowing firearms to come into her son's possession.

A spokeswoman from the New Hampshire Attorney General's office confirmed in October one of the two handguns seized from the home at 517 Post Road, where the shootout took place, was purchased by Cullen Mutrie's father. The attorney general has not commented on how the weapon came to be in Cullen Mutrie's possession.

The four police officers, through their attorney, argue the weapon was likely transferred to Cullen Mutrie after his father died in 2010.

McHugh has scheduled a hearing for Dec. 19 to allow the four police officers and their attorney to present evidence establishing Beverly Mutrie supplied her son with one of the guns used in the shooting.

The plaintiffs filed a request for McHugh to reconsider his order, and to allow for the matter to continue to a jury trial. They claim the judge misapprehended their argument, which does not attempt to prove Beverly Mutrie is culpable because of her familial relationship with her son. Instead, they say, Mutrie bears accountability because she neglected her obligations as a property owner.

The names of the plaintiffs are not disclosed in the lawsuit, which identifies them as John Doe 1-4.

In the days after the shooting, the officers were identified as: Rochester Detective Jeremiah Murphy and Newmarket Detective Scott Kukesh, who were both struck in the chest by bullets during the engagement with Mutrie; Eric Kulberg, of the University of New Hampshire Police Department, who was shot in the arm; and Dover Police Officer Greg Turner, who was struck in the shoulder.

Investigators say Cullen Mutrie killed himself and also murdered his one-time companion, Brittany Tibbetts, during the course of a lengthy standoff with police.

Mutrie and Tibbetts were at the center of a drug investigation, and police were searching for evidence of cocaine and the prescription painkiller oxycodone, according to court documents. Police were also carrying a warrant to arrest Tibbetts, a 26-year-old Maine resident.

An independent report on the circumstances behind the shooting is still pending.

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